JPMorgan sees higher BTC pricing potential, a16z unveils $ 4.5 billion of crypto funds, and PayPal suggests more crypto and blockchain engagement: Hodler’s Digest, 22-28. May
Comes every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulatory highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more – a week on the Cointelegraph in one link.
Top stories this week
Andreessen Horowitz closes $ 4.5 billion in cryptocurrency amid market turmoil
Venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, has unveiled a new $ 4.5 billion cryptocurrency fund. The A16z fund is the fourth of its kind and more than twice as much as the third crypto investment fund. With $ 3 billion earmarked for venture capital and $ 1[ads1].5 billion for early-seed projects, the fund will look to invest in companies at various stages of their life cycle. Andreessen’s new fund provides a strong indicator that venture capital interest in the crypto market remains high despite evidence of a brutal bear market.
JPMorgan places BTC fair price at $ 38K, declares crypto a preferred alternative asset
A client-focused note from JPMorgan this week described the banking giant’s thoughts on Bitcoin, claiming $ 38,000 as the asset’s fair value. The apparent bullish outlook came in the wake of depressed price action for Bitcoin, which has been limited to below $ 30,000. But even in February, when the BTC was valued at $ 43,000, JPMorgan strategists said that $ 38,000 was reasonable market value. This week’s customer note from JPMorgan also pointed to the possibility of positive price action for the entire crypto area – provided that venture capital investments do not falter.
WEF 2022: PayPal seems to embrace all possible crypto and blockchain services
According to Vice President Richard Nash, PayPal aims to give its platform more blockchain and crypto influence. “Just go slow in the crypto shield with buy / sell / hold in certain jurisdictions,” Nash told the Cointelegraph at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. “And then we look to working with others to embrace everything we can, whether it’s the coins we have today in PayPal digital wallets, private digital currencies or CBDCs in the future.”
GameStop unveils beta wallet for cryptocurrency and upcoming NFT platform
With time ticking down to GameStop’s NFT marketplace launch, the company has unveiled the beta version of an Ethereum-based wallet. The self-storage crypto and NFT storage solution is called GameStop Wallet. The browser-based wallet will go hand in hand with the company’s future NFT marketplace. GameStop is also developing a mobile app version of the wallet.
Korean watchdog begins risk assessment of crypto when Terra 2.0 passes voice
Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is working to standardize the evaluation of digital asset risks in the wake of the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. While FSS’s standardization work has only just begun, they are expected to lead to a legal framework for evaluating digital assets. Meanwhile, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon is moving forward with an ecosystem recovery plan, after receiving majority support from his community. The Terra 2.0 ecosystem went live on Friday with a new blockchain and crypto asset.
Winners and losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $ 28,449Ether (ETH) at $ 1729 and XRP on $ 0.37. The total market value is on $ 1.17 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies, the week’s three best altcoin winners are BORA (BORA) at 18.15%, Bitcoin Gold (BTG) at 17.79% and Ethereum Classic (ETC) at 11.09%.
This week’s three best altcoin losers are TerraClassicUSD (USTC) at -46.13%, STEPN (GMT) at -27.38% and Elrond (EGLD) at -25.70%.
For more info on cryptocurrencies, be sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most memorable quotes
“Decentralization really gives more control and power back into the hands of the people where it belongs.”
Sonali GiovinoHead of Communications for Defiyield
“Projects must look after the interests of the community and the users, because that is ultimately the most valuable thing you have.”
Nicky Chalabiecosystem success and activation professional at Near Foundation
“Many of the political and regulatory issues that limit the power to move money have to do with depriving people of their financial freedoms.”
Jeremy AllaireCEO of Circle
“In TradiFi, people think, ‘I do not want to lose money – how can you help me keep my fortune independent of markets?’ “So it’s very risk management oriented. While you’re in DeFi, the ones are like, ‘Give me the three-digit returns, woo!'”
Alexander FazelChief Partnership Officer for SwissBorg
“The growth of the term ‘Web3’ is encouraging because it means people are seeing this underlying technology being introduced into various applications – the ones they did not necessarily expect.”
Gavin Woodco-founder of Polkadot and Ethereum
“There is absolutely no reason why a deed to a house can not be a unique digital asset as long as that asset is created and stored properly.”
Alex AltmanCEO of Seal Storage Technology
The prediction of the week
The Bitcoin price could bottom out at $ 15.5,000 if it retests this lifetime historical support level
Bitcoin’s price has continued to struggle in recent days, and is often traded below $ 30,000, according to Cointelegraphs BTC Price Index. However, the asset may still fall significantly further, according to Rect Capital.
Throughout Bitcoin’s history, the asset’s price has respected the 200-week moving average (200WMA). “#BTC tends to pull -14% to -28% below 200-MA,” Rekt Capital said as part of a Twitter thread. “And since $ BTC 200-MA now represents the price point of ~ $ 22000 … A -14% downside week below 200-MA would result in a ~ $ 19000 Bitcoin,” they added. “And if #BTC were to repeat the lows at the bottom of March 2020 below 200-MA, $ BTC would return to the ~ $ 15,500 price point.”
FUD of the week
‘Hi!’ Elon Musk warns users against the latest profound crypto fraud
Did you see a video of Tesla CEO Elon Musk announcing 30% winnings via deposit on a crypto platform? Be warned that the video is a scam. Classified as a deepfake, the video was processed to look real, but is not, as confirmed by a Twitter comment from Musk himself. The video utilizes real footage of Musk doing a TED Talk earlier in 2022, modified to fool viewers into a scam. However, Deepfakes is nothing new. This recent effort takes advantage of Musk’s fame in line with his well-known crypto engagement.
Crypto spam increases by 4000% in two years – LunarCrush
The last two years have resulted in a 3,894% increase in crypto-related spam, according to recent data from LunarCrush, a crypto-intelligence device. One aspect that makes it difficult to detect: The unwanted action is not only bot-related, with a surprising amount coming from humans. Twitter is a hotbed of spam, based on LunarCrush data.
Targeted phishing scams give $ 438K in hacked Beeple account crypto and NFTs
A hacker or a group of hackers recently took over the Twitter account of Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple. The hacker (s) who ordered the well-known NFT artist’s account, posted phishing scam tweets, and angled the scam around Beeple’s recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Although Beeple managed to regain control of its Twitter account, the phishing effort stole around $ 438,000 with Ether and NFTs from victims.
Best Cointelegraph Features
The moon “created” its lavish reality … and says you can too
“Three years and BOM, you can be whatever you want – a famous musician, a billionaire. It does not matter what you want to do, everything can be done with the right mindset.”
Crypto is changing the way humanitarian agencies provide assistance and services
“It’s almost like the whole idea of a decentralized, distributed model is exactly what worked in terms of how we operated and distributed the system.”
How Terra’s collapse will affect future stablecoin regulations
The collapse of algorithmic stablecoin UST created a ripple effect on the broader crypto market and put regulators on extremely high alert.
